Intellectual Property Rights
Intellectual property rights (IPRs) – such as patents on scientific innovations and performance rights for artists – are protected in order to ensure that producers have sufficient incentive to invest in the creation of new products that benefit consumers. But new technologies and globalization have made the protection of some IPRs extremely costly. Developing countries, in particular, face a difficult decision in determining how much resources to spend on protecting IPRs. Some analysts argue that a cost-benefit calculation should determine which IPRs are worth protecting and the extent and type of protection that is socially efficient. Discuss the social benefits and costs of protecting IPRs.
Sources for Topic 2:
Kobayashi, Bruce H. and Yu, Ben T., “An Economic Analysis of Performance Rights: Some Implications of the Copyright Act of 1976,” Research in Law and Economics, 1995, 17, 237-70. 3
Maskus, Keith E., “The International Regulation of Intellectual Property,” WeltwirtschaftlichesArchiv/Review of World Economics, 1998, 134(2), 186-208.
Maskus, Keith E., Intellectual Property Rights in the Global Economy, Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics, 2000.
Thierer, Adam and Crews, Clyde Wayne, Jr., eds., Copy Fights: The Future of Intellectual Property in the Information Age, Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 2002.
Liebowitz, Stan J., “Policing Pirates in the Networked Age,” Policy Analysis No. 438, Cato Institute, Washington, D.C., May 15, 2002, http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/policing-pirates-networked-age
Einhorn, Michael A. and Rosenblatt, Bill, “Peer-to-Peer Networking and Digital Rights Management: How Market Tools Can Solve Copyright Problems,” Policy Analysis No. 534, Cato Institute, Washington, D.C., February 17, 2005, http://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/peerpeer-networking-digital-rights-management-how-market-tools-can-solve-copyright-problems
Fink, Carsten and Maskus, Keith E., “Why We Study Intellectual Property Rights and What We Have Learned,” in Carsten Fink and Keith E. Maskus, eds., Intellectual Property and Development: Lessons from Recent Economic Research, New York: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 1-15.